Hitherto, heat-shrinkable cylindrical labels, which are each shrunk by heat to be fittable to a container, have been well known.
Among heat-shrinkable cylindrical labels, known is a heat-shrinkable cylindrical label wherein a three-dimensional pattern is generated when the label is shrunk by heat. This heat-shrinkable cylindrical label is preferable since the label is decoratively good and additionally information can be supplied to visually handicapped persons through their touch senses.
Such a heat-shrinkable cylindrical label is disclosed in Patent Document 1.
Patent Document 1 discloses a three-dimensionally patterned shrunk label obtained by using an ultraviolet curable ink onto a one surface of a heat-shrinkable film to print any pattern, forming the heat-shrinkable film into a cylindrical form to turn the printed surface outward, fitting the cylindrical heat-shrinkable film to the outside of a container, and heating and shrinking the resultant to make the film adhere closely to the container.
In this three-dimensionally patterned shrunk label, its film regions to which the ultraviolet curable ink is applied are not easily shrunk while its film regions to which the ultraviolet curable ink is not applied are shrunk by heat. As a result, in the three-dimensionally patterned shrunk label, the regions where the ultraviolet curable ink is applied rise up as a three-dimensional pattern in a convex form.
[Patent Document 1]
    JP-A-9-330030
For the three-dimensionally patterned shrunk label in Patent Document 1, a heat-shrinkable film having a heat shrinkage ratio of about 30% or less is used (paragraph [0008] of Patent Document 1). For this reason, the three-dimensionally patterned shrunk label cannot be fitted closely to a small-diameter region of an article having regions which give a large difference in diameter. The small-diameter region is, for example, a region of a container which is smaller in diameter than a trunk region of the container, such as a shoulder region of the container.
In the meantime, it is supposed that a heat-shrinkable film having a heat shrinkage ratio of 30% or more is used in order to make the film adhere closely to a large-diameter region of an article and a small-diameter region thereof simultaneously. However, when such a heat-shrinkable film, which has a large heat shrinkage ratio, is used in the three-dimensionally patterned shrunk label in Patent Document 1, a three-dimensional pattern in a large convex form cannot be formed.